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November - brainfucked in Bangkok, Venice and Madrid

November - brainfucked in Bangkok, Venice and Madrid

Opa! An unexpected turn. A different post with a full story I needed to write to understand myself a bit more. Hope it helps you as much as it helped me.

Simon Puebla
December 18, 2024

🏃‍♂️ TL;DR

I am going to skip my classic structure today. I just need to reflect on what ended up being a solid life change that I don’t know where it will take me. So welcome to my brain - I will try to structure my ideas to be understood, both for the message to be transmitted, and for me to comprehend what I am going through.

🍋 Thoughts

We are expected to be 100% sure about the next step before making a decision, and we trick ourselves into believing we have all the possibilities under control

monsi

In September I started the VC challenge and went all into the idea of building this new business with a web3 approach to it. Talented team, lots of uncertainty, and a desired change of industry. I finally had my shot to build a web3 company, meet everyone I’ve always wanted to meet, and support builders to achieve their objectives. Be part of their growth, build cool relationships all over the world, and celebrate their success. A nomadic life, uncertainty, and lots of anecdotes to come.

One month later, Crecimiento, through my friend Emi, reaches out to join the project as a Sponsors & BD Lead. Crecimiento had created a huge pop up city in Buenos Aires creating impact across the whole industry. The opportunity was great, and the objectives were clear: we need to raise XYZ$ by December to make another pop up. “Can you do it? I’ll see you in Ericeira on the weekend and I introduce you to everyone“

Full startup mentality. Huge objectives -> “Let’s make Argentina the crypto capital of the world”, best possible talent, and all the energy in the world, as well as little to no structure, nor order to achieve it. We’re on it.

As someone who left Argentina when he was very, very young, having this opportunity to give back to the country where I was born is a huge satisfaction. I cannot really explain why it feels like this, it just feels right

mon

Through October and November we go to Ericeira, Rome, Chiang Mai, and Bangkok to achieve our objectives. We are stressed, we suffer and we have internal discussions, as well as we encourage each other to go as far as possible. We have a massive breakdown in the middle of Bangkok when media backlash appears. Two days later, we raised enough money to make the pop up happen. A month later, we are ‘overfunded’ and we increase our objective to create a three years plan to settle Crecimiento in our industry.

At the same time, in the VC, we built the whole investment process. We interviewed +100 startups, advanced them through the funnel, increased our pipeline from 2 startups to +120 in two months. We also attended crypto events, organised side events, increased our social media presence, settle two partnerships with huge layer ones, created an image and focused on translating what we do in crypto to a more web2 user base… time was not calm at all. We had a lot to do, and we were giving it our 100%.

However, I started feeling something had changed. Crecimiento was a proper web3 venture being born. A VC is not really web3, even if it tries. It is a financial institution that invests in an industry/sector, but you’re always an outsider who understands the industry, but does not suffer its complications. I wanted to suffer its complications. I wanted to have proper skin in the game. I love the team to bits and I was happy to do it, but it is not what I wanted to live.

The only thing I knew when I left Byld is that I wanted a lifestyle change. I wanted to be less fixed in a place, more exposed to people building amazing ventures and ideas, and surrounded by brilliant human beings that are talking about tech stuff I barely understand, but I know some buzzwords that make it sound like I do.

mon

After 3 months working an average of 14 to 16 hours a day, including weekends, to make all this objectives possible, I realised that the native web3 opportunity was the one that was giving me more work satisfaction. Don’t get me wrong, I’d do both all the time, but I need to be honest with myself, take the bet and commit.

And I basically made the decision based on the following ideas:

Nothing makes you more privileged than knowing how you want to live, and being able to shape your life around that idea.
For the next few years all I have to focus on is exposure to knowledge, networking, and committing mistakes by doing a lot of stuff.
I don’t know what I am good at, but I won’t find it waiting on a more confortable zone. I need to get out and find it.

And, circling back, the most important one. I’ll pretend I am 100% sure about everything that will happen afterwards, and believe I have everything under control.

Let’s fucking go.

💎 Inspiration

💙 Cheers

Manu, Cat, Celia, Abu, Miguel, Albert, Emi, Dominic, Santi, Santi, Mili, Pedro, Filipe, Juampi, Joan, Olimpia y Lola, Papa, Pilu, Fabi, Ine, Julia, Adri, Luqui, Seba, Byld Crew, Jacqui, Eze, Silvia, Luis, JJ, Miguel, Silvia, Chema, Jaime, Javi, Paco, Alex, Kevin, Alex, Gems, Victor, Ales y Dieguito, Raquel, los chicos de Box, Juanjo, Sun, Mauri.